Does Dowsing work?

Question

I just got a dowsing kit and it's been answering very personal questions for me. For some reason, a lot of the answers are good and I'm not very lucky right now. I swaer to god I'm not moving it either. Should I be skeptical? Thanks

Answer 1

The Ideomotor Effect
We are witnessing here a very powerful psychological phenomenon known as the "ideomotor effect." This is defined as, "an involuntary body movement evoked by an idea or thought process rather than by sensory stimulation." The dowser is unknowingly moving the device of choice, exerting a small shaking, tilt or pressure to it, enough to disturb its state of balance. This has been shown any number of times to be true, but the demonstration has meant nothing to the dowsers, who will persist in their delusion no matter how many times it is shown to them that dowsing does not work. The defensive reaction of most dowsers, following their failure, is to claim that they should not have submitted to any test, and will never do so again. And most will say that dowsing comes under special rules that deny that it can be tested, ever. The discouraging fact is that no dowser is ever convinced, as a result of proper double-blind testing, that they cannot dowse. Their need to believe is so strong and so ingrained, that they will refuse to accept any quality and/or quantity of good evidence. They have adopted a philosophy that shields them against reality.

There appears to be a feeling on the part of the dowsers that if they've been self-deceived, it indicates that they are therefore stupid or naive. This is certainly not the case. Any person, regardless of education, IQ, sophistication, or social position, can fall for the ideomotor phenomenon. An indication of that is that a great number of scientists mostly physicists have embraced belief in dowsing, in spite of their superior knowledge of how the world works. But this is an effect of the mind, a different matter from the workings of the common everyday objects and situations we encounter in our lives.

In short, no, it does not work.

Answer 2

Sorry I'm not really sure what you're talking about... but the "dowsing" that I am familiar with is a method of finding water. When I was very young my parents bought property in a rural area. Before construction, someone recommended to my father that we call a dowser, who would tell us where to drill for water. He arrived with a fresh cut stick, shaped in a Y. Holding either side of the Y he made circles around the property. Eventually he stopped, grabbed another stick and put it in the ground. That, he claimed, was where water would be found, and we drilled there. Indeed, we have a great well to this day, which never runs dry, and is the only well in the area that draws fresh water (the rest have sulphur water). The old dowser left, never accepting money for what he had done.

The only other thing I know about dowsing is that the very yound are much better at it. I have heard that if you take a two year old, give them a dowsing rod, and tell them to walk out and find water, they will inevitably find it.

Hope that can be of any use to you...

Answer 3

CanProf is 100% right. The James Randi Educational Foundation's million dollar prize has had more dowsers apply than any other paranormal claimers. You would think they would be lining up to get some easy money.

At Kassel, north of Frankfurt, Germany, the scientific group Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (GWUP) in 1992 set up a very efficient and effective site for testing dowsing in cooperation with a local television station. A plastic pipe of suitable size was buried fifty centimeters beneath a level section of field, through which a very large flow of water could be directed from a switching valve. The test area was protected by a large tent, and the position of the buried pipe was prominently marked by a broad red and white stripe. The challenge for the dowsers was not to find the pipe, but only to say whether water was flowing in it or not.

In response to advertisements, GWUP obtained thirty dowsers, mostly from Germany but also from Denmark, Austria, and France. Each dowser was required to perform ten "open" trials in which he or she would know whether or not the water was flowing, and they would have to obtain 100 percent results at that time. This set of trials would provide GWUP with a baseline from which to judge the subsequent twenty "closed" trials which immediately followed, in which they did not know the answer. In all cases, both with the open and closed tests, the on or off condition was decided by the random selection of a marked ball from a bag. Each dowser was asked to make, in advance, a statement expressing any objections he might have to the procedure and stating his or her expected success rate. Each and every problem was satisfied and each dowser expected 100 percent success, as attested by the signatures. Then each subject was asked to use his or her dowsing ability to scan the area in which the test was to be performed, to see if any underground distraction was present.

At the end of three days of testing, GWUP announced the results of almost a thousand bits of data to the assembled dowsers. A summary of their results produced just what would be expected according to chance.
Recall that in these tests each dowser had been asked to scan the test area in advance for any anomalies that might distract the powers. It was noted that none of the thirty dowsers found the same anomalies, though all but one found some anomaly, and some found several. Obviously, only one of the dowsers could have been right, and probably all were wrong.

The American Society of Dowsers, Inc., can be reached at Danville, VT 05828. However, inquiries indicating doubt or challenging their convictions will not be answered in a positive fashion.

Answer 4

Dowsers seek water, metal, and Ley lines. Dowsing is not for personal questions. Dowsing is an ancient and well respected calling. Christians attack it, like they attack anything they can't understand and might be Magick. There is no such thing as a commercial Dowsing kit. Each dowser must make their own pointers from natural materials.

Answer 5

There are lots of different typs of dowsing.

There is dowsing with a forked limb.

There is dowsing with two L shaped wires.

There is dowsing with a pendulum

There is dowsing by detecting subtle variations in the energy with your hands (often called scanning)

All of them work. and through dowsing; you can find all kinds of things. wiring in the wall, water, information. I remember one dowser on TV who worked for a mining company that dowsed for minerals over a map of the property to know which area(s) had the highest concentration of emeralds (if memory serves). I remember another dowser on TV that worled for a phone company (Pac Bell if memory serves) who carried two rods in his truck, and used dowsing to find the breaks in the phone cables.

Answer 6

Dowsing for water does seem to work. I don't know of any other type of dowsing.

If you are talking about a ouija board, I'm not religious but I'd leave those things alone.

Answer 7

Dowsing , when you are conneCted to Higher Intelligence without using the subconscious mind works out correct results. Deciding the sex of UNBORN GOES WRONG.

Answer 8

You answered your own questions: you're getting results thus it DOES indeed work!

Ignore the people who say otherwise. What matters is if you're getting results.

Ideometer, schmideometer!

Answer 9

It works sometimes. So does tossing a coin.
But click on the link below if you want a more authoritative, scientific answer.

Answer 10

yes